Jesus told the first Christians (120 of them) in ACTS 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” AND THEY RECEIVED POWER! AND THEY BORE WITNESS!

The Holy Spirit comes and The Church was born! Went from 120 to 3,120 in one day

Q. Do you want people at your job to know that you love & care for them? Serve them.

Q. Men, do you want your wives to know how much you love them? Serve them.

Q. Woman, do you want your husbands to know how much you love/appreciate them? Serve them.

Q. How will people know that we truly love them, Ekklesia? A. If we serve them.

Q. So, we’re the hero right?! WRONG.

3. JESUS IS THE TRUE AND BETTER SERVANT (MARK 10:45)

Jesus came not to be served but to die, to give his life: *SET APART FROM RELIGIONS

Religion purpose: EXAMPLE. Jesus’ purpose: SACRIFICE. **SUBSTITUTE!

Heart of Religion or Philosophy: **ADVICE

At the heart of Christianity: **GOOD NEWS THAT BRINGS JOY

Q. How do you feel when you get advice?

EXAMPLE: Think if you had been battling cancer… doctor comes… CHEMO vs HEALED

THE GOSPEL SAYS THAT JESUS ALREADY TOOK THE CHEMO, FOR US!

Religions/Philosophies say “Repent and do better”

Gospel says “Repent and believe that in Christ, ‘It’ is finished!’”

The Bible says that we are all born under the curse of sin. That we inherited a sin nature from our first Dad, Adam. *CLOSE YOUR EYES (FALLING FROM THE SKY STORY)

Q. How do you know if Jesus was your substitute on the cross?

This is how: If you hear and understand this good news and turn from trusting in yourself (sin) and start believing in the good news of Jesus!

Turn from your sin of self-exaltation *you could never be good enough to warrant salvation.

Turn from your sin of despair *Jesus was good enough for you- there’s no amount of sin that’s match for His grace.

Come to Jesus- trusting in His finished work on your behalf. It humbles the proud and elevates the despairing.

With one move the gospel sweeps your legs out from under you and slides a pillow under your head.

Q. How do we know that Jesus truly loves us, Ekklesia?

A. Because He serves us, He gave up His life for us on a cross for our sin + resurrected for salvation!

Say this with me, “JESUS IS THE TRUE & BETTER SERVANT!”

JESUS IS THE HERO! HE IS ALIVE! HE LIVES TO SERVE US!

Stop building your identity or hanging your hope on anything but Jesus. It’ll all fail!

Imagine yourself falling from the sky- this is how you were born. Falling, falling, falling to your inevitable destruction.

Every attempt to become “better” or “moral” or “religious”; every attempt to “find your own truth” or become “enlightened” is like pulling a parachute, but these parachutes are full of holes and don’t slow you down a bit. You’re still falling, whether you want to admit it or not.

You can pull all of the chutes in the world, but it is all false hope and futile against the fall.

**You need a substitutionary sacrifice. YOU NEED TO BE SERVED!

The good news of Jesus’ Substitutionary Sacrifice is that He jumped out of heaven and caught up to us. Jesus didn’t grab us and fly away, but positioned himself in between us and the ground. He absorbs the blow of the fall and we are spared- we are ransomed by a Substitutionary Sacrifice.

On the cross, Jesus substituted himself for his enemies so that He could make them His brothers and sisters- so that they could be born again as sons and daughters of God.

This is the gospel. This is the good news of how Jesus succeeded where we have always and would always fail.